HowTo: Broadcom BCM43xx in 5 minutes with ndiswrapper/WPA for fresh installs

[Hasmarth]

what do you mean by the same directory? i have the folder on my desktop but thats it. it has bcmwl5.inf, bcmwl5.sys, and lsbcmnds.cat

should they be some where else?

[Ayuthia]

what do you mean by the same directory? i have the folder on my desktop but thats it. it has bcmwl5.inf, bcmwl5.sys, and lsbcmnds.cat

should they be some where else?

No. It is fine there. Just make sure you are in the desktop when you run the ndiswrapper -i command:

cd ~/Desktop
sudo ndiswrapper -e bcmwl5
sudo ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
ndiswrapper -l

I added the ndiswrapper -e command in there in case you have not removed the current driver.

[bilbobagins]

jonathan@jonathan-desktop:~$ lshw -C network
WARNING: you should run this program as super-user.
*-network
description: Wireless interface
product: BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: 5
bus info: pci@0000:01:05.0
logical name: wlan0
version: 02
serial: 00:11:50:ed:34:71
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ndiswrapper+bcmwl5 driverversion=1.52+Broadcom,10/12/2006, 4.100. latency=64 module=ndiswrapper multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11g
jonathan@jonathan-desktop:~$
THis is what is seen using the above command.BUT when I use network manager to st mt ESSID and password,all I keep getting is wlan0:avahi
I use the applet found in "add to panel" also when I go back into network manager my password is scrambled.any ideas for a solution please.Bilbo
UPDATE..jonathan@jonathan-desktop:~$ sudo cat /etc/network/interfaces
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback


iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-psk a89308d08c05ad9f2c580dde5b51832c3d35670c2774c431cf 272b96724372dd
wpa-driver wext
wpa-key-mgmt WPA-PSK
wpa-proto WPA
wpa-ssid BTHomeHub-ED74

auto wlan0
jonathan@jonathan-desktop:~$

[Hasmarth]

other commands are all good, except for ndiswrapper -l, it says bcml5 : invalid driver

[bilbobagins]

Just to say THANK YOU for the instructions.finally installed my broadcom 4318 by building NDISWRAPPER from source.
but still had problems with AVAHI. This was solved by installing Wicd as per their website put in wep code added to startup list rebooted and its all good . thanks again .a very happy bilbo

[Ayuthia]

other commands are all good, except for ndiswrapper -l, it says bcml5 : invalid driver

Does it say bcml5 instead of bcmwl5? If so, remove that driver by:

sudo modprobe -r bcml5

Otherwise, are you using the driver in step 2f?

[Hasmarth]

that was a typo, sorry
Yeah i'm using the drivers from step 2f

[Ayuthia]

that was a typo, sorry
Yeah i'm using the drivers from step 2f

You might try going to this link:
http://support.dell.com/support/down...g=en&TabIndex=

It is from the Dell site for the Inspiron 5100. I am guessing that you will need the Dell-Driver from the wireless wlan section. Hope that helps.

[heiko_s]

Just used your instructions with Hardy 8.04 and it works (using the Hardy bug procedure). Here the details:

$lsmod

Module Size Used by
ipv6 267780 8
af_packet 23812 4
radeon 124192 2
drm 82452 3 radeon
rfcomm 41744 2
l2cap 25728 13 rfcomm
ppdev 10372 0
acpi_cpufreq 10796 0
cpufreq_powersave 2688 0
cpufreq_userspace 5284 0
cpufreq_conservative 8712 0
cpufreq_stats 7104 0
cpufreq_ondemand 9740 1
freq_table 5536 3 acpi_cpufreq,cpufreq_stats,cpufreq_ondemand
sbs 15112 0
container 5632 0
dock 11280 0
sbshc 7680 1 sbs
iptable_filter 3840 0
ip_tables 14820 1 iptable_filter
x_tables 16132 1 ip_tables
lp 12324 0
pcmcia 40876 0
joydev 13120 0
b43 144420 0
rfkill 8592 1 b43
mac80211 165652 1 b43
cfg80211 15112 1 mac80211
led_class 6020 1 b43
input_polldev 5896 1 b43
ssb 34308 1 b43
hci_usb 16540 2
bluetooth 61156 7 rfcomm,l2cap,hci_usb
yenta_socket 27276 4
rsrc_nonstatic 13696 1 yenta_socket
pcmcia_core 40596 3 pcmcia,yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic
ndiswrapper 192920 0
video 19856 0
output 4736 1 video
snd_intel8x0 35356 3
snd_ac97_codec 101028 1 snd_intel8x0
ac97_bus 3072 1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm_oss 42144 0
snd_mixer_oss 17920 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 78596 3 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
parport_pc 36260 1
parport 37832 3 ppdev,lp,parport_pc
evdev 13056 6
dcdbas 9504 0
snd_seq_dummy 4868 0
serio_raw 7940 0
battery 14212 0
button 9232 0
snd_seq_oss 35584 0
snd_seq_midi 9376 0
ac 6916 0
snd_rawmidi 25760 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event 8320 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq 54224 6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_mid i_event
snd_timer 24836 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device 9612 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi ,snd_seq
shpchp 34452 0
intel_agp 25492 1
snd 56996 17 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_ oss,snd_pcm,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi, snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
pci_hotplug 30880 1 shpchp
agpgart 34760 2 drm,intel_agp
soundcore 8800 1 snd
iTCO_wdt 13092 0
iTCO_vendor_support 4868 1 iTCO_wdt
snd_page_alloc 11400 2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
pcspkr 4224 0
psmouse 40336 0
ext3 136712 2
jbd 48404 1 ext3
mbcache 9600 1 ext3
sg 36880 0
sr_mod 17956 0
cdrom 37408 1 sr_mod
sd_mod 30720 4
ata_piix 19588 3
ata_generic 8324 0
pata_acpi 8320 0
tg3 116228 0
libata 159344 3 ata_piix,ata_generic,pata_acpi
scsi_mod 151436 4 sg,sr_mod,sd_mod,libata
ehci_hcd 37900 0
uhci_hcd 27024 0
usbcore 146028 5 hci_usb,ndiswrapper,ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd
thermal 16796 0
processor 36872 3 acpi_cpufreq,thermal
fan 5636 0
fbcon 42912 0
tileblit 3456 1 fbcon
font 9472 1 fbcon
bitblit 6784 1 fbcon
softcursor 3072 1 bitblit
fuse 50708 3


* Machine Brand and Model
Dell Latitude D600

* Wireless Brand and Model (please post the whole line): lspci | grep Broadcom
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5705M Gigabit Ethernet (rev 01)
02:03.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)

* Wireless Chipset: lspci -n | grep '14e4:43'
02:03.0 0280: 14e4:4320 (rev 03)

* Ubuntu Version: lsb_release -d
Description: Ubuntu 8.04.1

* Kernel / Architecture: uname -mr
2.6.24-19-generic i686

* Any extra boot options you might be using (e.g., noacpi, irqpoll, etc.)
-

* Whether or not you had to compile NDISWrapper
No compile needed

* Which version of Step 2 you used
I took the driver referred to on:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ux/+bug/210373
(see near bottom), driver page is:
http://www.wireless-driver.com/downl...r-download.htm

* If you're on Hardy, whether you had to apply the "Hardy Bug Fix" workaround or not
yes !

Thanks for the great job - wish I had found this earlier!

[Disastorm]

Hi just fresh installed Hardy but when I try to apt-get ndiswrapper, it cant find it.

*nm i had to update the aptitude.

*thx i got it working. No errors at all, although I had to use the Hardy workaround. (also used 2a)
I litteraly installed Hardy, and the first thing I did was this guide. With the workaround, and the "make it permanent" it works fine, and i restarted my laptop and it still works.